Which one among the following statements is not correct?
[amp_mcq option1=”Johannes Kepler proved that the path of each planet around the Sun is elliptical with the Sun at its focus.” option2=”The first successful attempt to establish the size of the Earth is credited to Eratosthenes.” option3=”The first Greek to profess a Sun-centred or Heliocentric Universe was Sir Isaac Newton.” option4=”The famous astronomical book Almagest was compiled by Ptolemy.” correct=”option3″]
This question was previously asked in
UPSC CISF-AC-EXE – 2018
Statement B is correct. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a Greek scholar in the 3rd century BC, is famous for making the first relatively accurate calculation of the Earth’s circumference using geometry and astronomical observations.
Statement C is incorrect. The first known Greek astronomer to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system was Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC, predating Kepler and Newton by over a thousand years. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was a British physicist and mathematician, not Greek, and his work explained *why* planetary orbits are elliptical (gravity), building upon Kepler’s descriptive laws.
Statement D is correct. The Almagest is the 2nd-century AD astronomical treatise by Claudius Ptolemy, which presented a detailed geocentric model of the universe that remained the standard view for centuries.